The Luckiest One HouseOC
by laberin
Summary: A strange, foreign woman comes to PPTH to visit House. He seems to know her and is very happy to see her. Who is she and what's her connection to our beloved misanthropic diagnostician? Will be rated M for future chapters.
1. Chapter 1

**The Luckiest One**

**Chapter 1**

Greg House was pissed. Royally pissed. Scratch that. He was beyond that. He had reached his boiling point 30 minutes ago and was now in a stage of complete and total fury.

He had woken that morning at around 4.30 a.m. with a horrible, very intense ache in his damaged thigh and no matter how he tossed and turned in his bed or how many pills he took, the pain just wouldn't go away.

So, at 8 o'clock he had already swallowed 5 Vicodin (which he considered a new record for this early on in the day) and drank 3 cups of coffee, because at the beginning he was still under the illusion that the caffeine might help. Get his head clear, so that he may actually forget about the pain for a while. Unfortunately, all it did was make him walk down the hall to his bathroom every 5 minutes, which didn't really help his leg either.

When he arrived at the hospital at around 9 o'clock, which was really early for him, because he usually slept in and didn't bother to show up before 11 a.m., he was already in a cranky mood and Dr. Cuddy's annoying voice did nothing to improve it.

"HOUSE! You will do as I tell you, or I'm going to fire you! And this time I am not kidding! If you don't start right now doing the 5 clinic hours you still owe me, I promise I will" Cuddy said in a very stern tone walking towards him.

House instantly made a beeline for the elevator ignoring her completely. His morning was bad enough as it was. He certainly didn't need her crap right now. Just when the doors had opened and he stepped in Cuddy managed to reach him, having finally battled her way through the overcrowded hospital lobby.

"House! Did you even hear me?! I said that…"

"Yeah, yeah I heard what you said, oh goddess-of-the-annoying-administrator-species, one that is hopefully soon to be extinct, I might add ". Cuddy sent him a disapproving look.

"But I am not going to do them. And not even this 5inch piece of fabric you call a blouse can convince me otherwise" House stared pointedly at her breasts.

"And you are not going to fire me!" he continued "You've been saying that since the very first day I started working for you and accidentally set fire to the MRI machine and it still hasn't happened and never will. You just love my verbally expressed appreciation of your fun-bags too much. Oh, Dr. Cuddy, if you had only the courage to tell me, I'd be more than happy not to just leave it at that. I am more of a physical person anyway…." He suggestively wiggled his eyebrows.

Cuddy frowned. She had been surprised to see House walk in this early. She had hoped that it was a good sign, that for once he had gotten a good night of sleep and was now in a tolerable mood. She figured that now might be a good time to remind him of his missing clinic hours. Standing in front of the elevator facing an overly tired and exhausted looking House, she now realized that her hasty assumptions had been false.

But he had started it and there was no going back now. She couldn't let him win all the time.

"Don't flatter yourself, Dr. House. I could have sworn that with that leg of yours, our physical activities would be limited anyway. I bet the only position you are able to perform is with me on top which would only mirror the relationship we already have here at the hospital. And you wouldn't want to drag all the work stuff back home with you, would you?" she sent him a flashing smile.

House at the beginning lewdly smirk had very fast turned into an irritated frown. He looked like he was about to retort something, but before he got the chance, Lisa Cuddy quickly continued.

"Speaking of work, your paperwork was due about a month ago and if it isn't on my desk by tomorrow 5 o'clock sharp, I'll charge you with 10 extra hours of clinic duty. And you can't get any of your new employees to do them. I've already filled them up with some of their own."

House looked clearly aggravated now, but before he had the chance to open his mouth and sent and angry remark Cuddy's way, the elevator doors closed and the car began to move upwards.

By the time he reached his office, word had already gotten around that Dr. House was in early (which surprised everybody greatly) and that he was really, really angry and absolutely not to be messed with (which didn't surprise people that much).

Unfortunately for House's new ducklings the rumour mill hadn't reached his office, yet where they were all sitting reviewing a chart from their newest patient that came in about 30 minutes earlier.

When House limped in he was greeted directly by Cuttner's eager voice: "Dr. House. We have a new patient. She presents with fever, headache…" at that House cut him off.

"Hold it right there. Has not your Mommy taught you any manners? How about a 'Good morning, Dr. House. Yes, your coffee will be right there for you'? I can't diagnose people this early in the morning, especially not without having had any coffee, and with a bunch of over-motivated second-class doctors all trying to get in my good books."

At that Cuttner sprang up, went over to the coffee maker and quickly poured House a cup. It wasn't until his new duckling had handed House the mug with the steaming beverage that the brilliant diagnostician remembered that he had already had 3 of them this morning and that neither his bladder nor his sensitive gustatory nerves could tolerate another one. This realization brought yet another angry scowl to his face and made Cuttner make a run back for his chair and hide behind his file.

After putting his red mug none to gently down on the glass table, House finally looked at his new fellowship members, which he had chosen only a few weeks ago.

They were all seated around the rectangular glass table next to the white board and had each a file in their hands, which Taub and 13 had put down on the table upon House's arrival.

Both were now eagerly looking at him while Cuttner was still hiding behind his file pretending to read the symptoms which he had already known by heart 10 minutes ago, but not daring to look or speak up.

He had already realized that his boss was not in the bestest of moods today and decided to wait till House's attention had shifted to someone else. This sure didn't take long.

"You, 13. You gotta do my paperwork", House barked.

"It's over there in my office. Second drawer from the top. But don't you dare touch the third one. My private porn-collection is off limits, especially to such a little, insecure gal like you. Wouldn't want your whole world picture to fall apart upon seeing Pam and Tommy doing the nasty"

At first 13 looked annoyed, which quickly upon House's remark about her being insecure turned to embarrassment and then to anger.

"Excuse me, Dr. House" she said with a very frustrated undertone in her voice

"I do believe that I was hired as a medical fellowship member on your team. The job description said nothing about secretarial duties OR having to be the target of your sexual assaults on a daily bases."

Having said that she craned her chin up high and said up a little straighter.

Taub and Cuttner just stared open-mouthed at her and unconsciously both scooted a little back with their chairs in preparation to the outburst that was about to follow from the rather shocked looking House who at the first moment after her statement just stared at her with a very surprised look on his face. It didn't take long for him to recover, though and the incredulous look was soon replaced with a rather nasty smirk.

"Well, aren't we a little feisty today? Whatever got your panties in a knot? Didn't get any last night? I wonder why ever not. With a rack like that guys must be standing in line. Well maybe you're just a little bit too tight up for them. I mean just look at your clothes. They practically scream "oh, I am hot but I don't want anybody to notice, because I am such a little prude with a self-esteem of about the size of li'l Taubs little toe here", hearing House's words, 13 began visibly to pale and sank back in her chair.

House realized that he was exposing and hurting her but he was on a roll and in a bad mood anyway so he just blew all caution in the wind and continued his tirade: "but you know, if you're so desperate you could always try your luck as a working girl. Some guys actually like the little 'miss-I-got-a-stick-up-my-a'-number. Not me though, but I'd probably do you out of pity so you'd shut up and be actually useful around here. Boy, I really should have kept Cameron. She was not only nice to look at", he let his eyes roam up and down her body, stopping twice at her breasts. 13 looked like she was about to start crying any moment "but also knew when to shut up and always did her job, MY paperwork that is. Now go what you are supposed to or you're fired!"

After House had ended his little speech, 13 stood up shakily and made her way over to his office. House was really exhausted now. He let himself sink in the nearest chair.

"Was that really necessary" Taub asked with a disapproving look on his face, "we are all used to making blunt jokes but that was just cruel".

"Hey, if you want to work for me, you gotta live with what comes out of my mouth. If you can't, you'd better quit right now. Because I don't have time wiping you whinny noses every time I say something you consider insensitive. Suck it up or leave, because there's no time for your self-righteousness either. We have some actual work to do here. Just ask the dark one." At this House let his eyes travel questioningly about the room, expecting to lend them on a affirmatively nodding Foreman any second.

But he was disappointed. Besides Taub, himself and Cuttner the room was empty. The latter took House's last statement as his cue to re-emerg from behind his file.

"About the actual work, Dr. House. We still have our newest patient here."

House looked at him for the first time since the very beginning when after coming in he had automatically dismissed his ranting down a few symptoms. But now, after a horrible morning which was toped by insulting his new female employee and almost making her cry, House was really exhausted and ready to take his mind of. And what was better for that than a good medical mystery.

Besides Vicodin, booze, monster trucks and porn of course, but since he had already taken a lot of Vicodin today - after the 7th this morning in the shower he had lost count – and the other few things weren't close at hand Greg House had to settle with his 2nd favourite past time (after Vicodin and porn) - solving a medical problem.

"Okay, what do you got there" he addressed Cutter, who quickly picked his file back up and began reading "Patient, Jupiter Meyers…"  
"Don't care about the name" House interrupted him "unless it is medically relevant". He put his finger on his chin, rubbing it thoughtfully and pretended to think for a moment.

"Do you think a name like Jupiter could hint to a disease? Maybe a mental illness she could have inherited from her parents. Everyone who names their child after a planet can not be right up here", he taped with his finger to his forehead.

"Yes, eh anyhow" Cuttner coughed a little "Patient" he didn't repeat her name this time "presented to the emergency room last night with fever, nausea, a headache, pain in the joints. Blood work showed elevated…" House put his hand up as a sign to stop Cuttner from listing all the symptoms.

"Ho, ho, hold it again. That's what you are bothering me with today? Do you have nothing better to do? All the symptoms you just read indicate a common cold. The guy has the sniffels. Prescribe some aspirin, a hot cup of tea and 3 days of bed rest and send him home. Boy, and you all want to be doctors! It does indeed take a bunch of high qualified specialist to figure that one out. I just wonder how we managed that all alone. Didn't even need a neurologist to assist us. Bummer!" House looked first at Cuttner and then at Taub with a bemused grin on his face. Cuttner opened his mouth about to say something, but before he got the chance, House already went on: "Where's Foreman anyway?" House brow furrowed.

"He's consulting on a case with Smithson from Memorial General." Taub piped up "Has been the whole week by the way, since we hadn't had any case for the past 6 days and Cuddy grew bored of us just sitting around doing crossword-puzzles and the clinic hours you ARE actually supposed to do". He leaned back in his chair.

"Yeah, well we have a case now and who authorized this little vacation trip anyway?" House asked. Taub relaxed even more. He felt on safe ground now. "Well, Foreman is not your employee anymore. Remember? Dr. Cuddy put him in the same position you are in, thereby making him your partner".

"Okay, listen up little stud", some of Taub's face muscles visible began to flex "firstly, Foreman may not be my underling anymore – thanks to the she-devil herself - but that doesn't mean that he's in my position. Nowhere near it. For one he doesn't have all the wood I got. And I'm not just talking about the cane here" at that House lifted up his walking stick and pointed it at Taub "and secondly" House continued "he ain't my partner either, because I can tell you exactly why he went over to General Memorial. Not to kiss Smithson's a. That guy's a bastar who doesn't know sh about diagnosing an illness, even if it was Lupus and bit him directly in his pompous butt. No, Foreman is over there because his ex-girlfriend is working as head nurse in their pediatrics department. With all the resigning and finding himself crap he apparently hit kind of a dry spell. Not much time for banging when you suddenly realize that you don't want to become like your evil boss, until you figure out that you already are. In fact Foreman has been like me since he was about 5. Well, that's what I told him right before he quit. Had he actually listened he wouldn't have had to go through this whole self-finding process just to end up where he started and might have actually gotten some. Maybe even on a regular basis. If that were the fact he didn't have to be over at this crappy hospital kissing some even crappier doctor's a just to get in the pants of his ex-girlfriend and could actually be helpful with this new case we got. I mean, we need all the help we can get here, right guys? A patient with the flu is quite a challenge and not to be taken lightly."

All three of House's underlings rolled their eyes and Cuttner once again looked like he was about to say something, but before he could as much as open his mouth, House went on: "And this by the way proves my other point. Do you really think that if Foreman WERE indeed my partner, the correct term is 'life partner' by the way, he really needed to find his satisfaction elsewhere thereby breaking my poor, little oh so fragile heart" at his last sentence House made a puppy dog face and pretended he was about to cry. Cuttner just looked confused while Taub relaxed back in his chair.

The following moment two things happened at once: 13 opened House's office door. She looked very much composed again but if you looked closely you could still see the hurt in her eyes. House didn't miss that. The same time 13 walked back into the conference room balancing a pile of folders, hers, Cuttner's and Taub's pager went off.

They looked at it and than all hurried quickly outside. House scowled. He was interrupted in the middle of giving them a lecture on the nature of people.

And while Dr. Gregory House made a sport of interrupting people every chance he got, he didn't really appreciate if someone didn't let him finish. Because one of the things the brilliant diagnostician actually enjoyed, was the sound of his own voice.

So, turning from the whiteboard and limping towards his office to enjoy at least a few minutes of peace and maybe some jazz music till his ducklings would return undoubtedly with a whole list of new symptoms and the insistence that their patient with the stupid name had indeed a more severe illness than the common cold, Greg House decided that this day had taken yet another turn for the worse.

HOUSEMDHOUSEMDHOUSEMDHOUSEMD

Two hours later found House and his team back in the conference room.

House was writing all the symptoms the file was telling them on the whiteboard.

The page had indeed been for their newest patient, whose symptoms had suddenly had worsened and who, for no apparent reason, had slipped in a coma just half an hour ago.

House was in his element. He was scribbling in full speed while at the same time yelling at his team for suggestions just so he could degrade them as pointless the second they had left their mouths.

His ducklings were slowly beginning to get frustrated. They had dealt with House's bad mood and even snarkier than usual comments this morning.

After that they had spent almost an hour trying to save their patient, just to have her slip in a coma at the end of it, and now they were sitting here around the conference table trying to come up with a diagnosis. But no matter what they suggested, everything was shot down by their cranky boss whose spectrum of insults seem to have expended vastly since the last time they had seen him.

Taub was the first one to master the courage and carefully give House contra, ever one of the latter's tirades about how useless their comments were and what crappy doctors they made, had just ended.

"Yes, well maybe Dr. House, if you would actually listen to what we have to say instead of just shooting it down, you might find one or another useful medical comment. And if we are indeed such bad doctors, maybe you shouldn't have hired us. Do your diagnosis all alone right now. I am just wondering if you could have come up with anything better.

I bet not, because your brilliant mind might not be so brilliant after all when you need a team to help you. Seems to me that all it is good for is producing sexual comments and insulting people"

House stopped writing and slowly turned around. His brows knitted together and a very furious look entered his eyes. 13 and Cuttner looked like Taub had just pronounced their death sentence.

Both of them seemed to be thinking the same: _I haven't gone through weeks of nerve-wrecking elimination games, finally beat out all the other candidates, to be fired now, just because Taub can't swallow his pride once and keep his mouth shut._

But to their sheer and utter amazement nothing of that sort happened. House just stared at Taub for a moment, his eyes unreadable. Then slowly a smirk began to form at the corner of his mouth "Well Taub, I am surprised that such a little guy like you had so much in his pants", with that he turned around again and continued scribbling away on the whiteboard.

Taub looked smug while 13 and Cuttner let out a breath they weren't aware they had been holding.

Suddenly female voice sounded from the door: "8 years and you are still the same obnoxious a, who doesn't care for other peoples feelings and treats everyone like crap." Her tone was soft, but when she spoke a slight foreign accent seeped through her words.

Everyone except House turned around to see who had just been speaking.

They saw a strange woman standing in the door of the conference room. She was wearing a pink tank-top and a white skirt that came down to her knees. Her feet stuck in white sneakers. The woman was maybe 5 ft. 5" tall and looked pretty young, in her mid to late 20s probably. Her light-brown, slightly wavy hair was cascading down to her shoulders. It made a perfect contrast to her alabaster-coloured, very even skin. With her high cheekbones and her slim body that was rounded in just the right places she could only be described as beautiful. Her hazelnut eyes were fixed on House's back.

"Yeah" House finally said, still not turning around. His voice was neutral, not giving anything away. "That might be because contrary to popular believe, people don't change. At least not in a way that really matters. They might change there eating habits or their style of clothing, but really important things stay the same."

The strange woman began to smirk. "Oh, you mean things like your favourite colour or all-time favourite TV-show?"

"Exactly" House finally turned around now, seeing the woman for the first time. He studied her intensely. Apparently he liked what he saw, because his eyes lit up. And not just for the briefest moment, like House usually displayed his emotions: only for the very attentive observer to notice, before it was gone, hidden behind a mask of indifference. No, this time, there was a glimmer in Dr. House's eyes which made them an even lighter blue. If his ducklings hadn't known better, they would have said he was actually happy to see this woman, But that was not possible, because Greg House was never happy.

He nodded his head towards the woman's top "Your favourite colour is still pink, I see, and you still got that annoying accent of yours"

"Well, that might be because I am still German and as you said, most people don't change and I can't change my birthplace, I don't want to change my nationality and I won't change my favourite colour. At least not in the near future, because I like all three of them."

By now the woman was not just smirking anymore, but had a bright smile plastered on her face which made her look even more beautiful. House was not the only one to notice that. Cuttner and Taub were staring open-mouthed at her, while 13 was just curiously watching the whole scene playing out in front of her.

Hadn't House been this engrossed in the conversation with the strange woman himself, he would have probably told his two male employees to watch the drool that was about to drip out of their mouths.

But for once such a little fact went unnoticed to him and so he continued talking to the German woman "I had no clue you were coming. Why didn't you call? I could have picked you up at the airport!"

"Well firstly, my visit was supposed to be a surprise. Wouldn't have wanted to miss the look on your face when I walked in. And secondly, I have a couple of suitcases and I am not riding on this death machine you call a motorcycle with you! I took a cab, it worked just fine. I also know that you have to work"

House frowned and suddenly looked rather upset. "You didn't even see my face when I walked in, because I was facing away from you and I could have taken my car, you know. If you had told me you were coming I could've taken the day of and we could have spent more time together. Besides, I don't even have a lot of food at home. Certainly not your favourite chocolate milk."

The woman rolled her eyes and let out a sigh. "Greg, I appreciate your" she hesitated, "eh, niceness, but I'm here now. So why don't you stop complaining about things which we can't change now and which don't matter anyway and come over here and greet my properly?"

House considered here for a moment and then his face began to light up again. He put the marker he had been fiddling with ever since he had stopped writing, down, crabbed his cane which was leaning next to him on the table, and slowly began to make his way over to the door where the woman was standing. She hadn't moved an inch ever since she entered the conference room. 3 pairs of eyes were following their boss making his way over to her.

House stopped about a foot in front of her. It was now even more apparent how tall he was, since he was looming over her by at least 1 1/2 head lengths. They looked at each other for a moment, both grinning widely.

Suddenly House did something everybody in the room (including 2/3 of the rest of the hospital staff) thought they'd probably never see. House dropped his cane, crabbed the strange woman by her shoulders, pulled her towards him and enveloped her in a big bear-hug. As soon as he embraced her, the woman put her arms around him and rested her head on his shoulder.

House held her very tight. They stayed like this what seemed like at least 2 minutes. Finally House pulled away and looked down her, directly into her eyes.

"It's so good to see you again, Anna. I've really missed you." With that he leaned forward once again and planted a light kiss on the top of her head. The woman had the happiest look on her face.

They were both so engrossed in each other that they neither noticed the ducklings shocked faces, mouths agape, nor Dr. Cuddy, who had just walked in with the firmness of a woman on a mission to yell some more at House for still not having done his clinic hours, and who was now at a complete loss of words upon the sight of House hugging and being nice to this _strange_ woman.

Everyone in the room wondered who the heck this woman was that got the great misanthrope Gregory House not only to show his rarely displayed emotions, but what is more, do so in a public place where everyone that knew him could see. They all concluded for themselves that this must either be one of House's many jokes or that he must really care for this woman when he was willing to risk his reputation as the biggest bastar of the entire hospital, New Jersey and probably even the United States.

A/N: That's the end of Chapter 1. What do you guys think? Reviews are greatly appreciated!


	2. Chapter 2

**Happy belated New Year everyone!**

**Sorry, it has taken me so long to post again, but I've been on Christmas Vacation in Venezuela for the past 3 weeks.**

**PLEASE REVIEW!**

**Chapter 2**

_The same day __– a few hours earlier:_

Boy, was she glad to get of that airplane. Anna loved coming to the States. It was so great here. She just loved the language. English had always be one of Anna's greatest passions, which was the reason why she had come here in the first place all those years ago. She wasn't always happy with her language skills, though. There were days when she thought she was doing a pretty good job and there were others when she felt like she couldn't speak the language at all. Fortunately all the people she had met when she first arrived were very supportive. Most of them didn't give her to feeling of being different and foreign. They had treated her like she was one of them from the very first moment on. Yes, that was definitely another reason why she liked this country so much, because she was very fond of the people here.

Anna had never regretted coming here. Although it had been quite a struggle.

She could still vividly remember her father's initial reaction to her idea of going to the USA. He had thrown a major fit, which wasn't really unusual for him. He was that kind of person that never liked a new idea, just because it was new. You just had to throw it in his face at some point, let him yell a little, condemn the idea, deny it and than wait for the storm to pass. At some point he'd eventually come around. He always did. But this time it had been different. It took Anna an entire year to convince her father to let her go.

He always said that it was the money, that 8 000 dollars were just too expensive, but Anna new from the very beginning that this was a lie.

She had been fortunate enough to grow up in a home where money had never been an issue. Her parents had both well-paying jobs and they loved to travel. So by the time Anna came to the States for the first time she had already been at most of the other places in the world.

Later Anna learned that the real reason for her father's refusal to let her go was partly to be found in his immense dislike for the American culture, way of life and of course politics - although Anna had never been able to figure out where that came from - and was mainly that he just didn't want his only daughter to be gone for such a long time, because although he never really admitted it, he loved Anna very much. That became apparent whenever they were on the phone and he would tell her how unnerving her brother and mother had been again and how much her dry humour and straightforwardness were missing. Both knew of course that 2 days together and they would be in each others hair again. Nevertheless it was still nice to hear that he father missed her and cared for her. Something he had never admitted to when she was still at home.

Anna's mother was the complete opposite of her Dad: she was soft-tempered, caring and always showed her emotions. She had supported Anna from the very first minute Anna had announced her "crazy idea" (her Dad's words), saying that it would be a great opportunity for her, but at the same time teary-eyed declaring how much she would miss her beloved child of course. But that was just how Anna's Mom was. She felt with everyone and cried even when the neighbours' budgie had died.

As time went by, Anna realized that her parents were more alike than she had thought. It was just the way of expressing their feelings which was different.

Anna hated her accent. Everywhere she went people immediately recognized her as a foreigner. Every time someone pointed it out, she would get frustrated. Although she had had only positive experiences so far - most people would say something along the lines like "Oh my gosh, I love your accent! It's so cute!", or one of the stupider thinks she had heard: "I love your accent! I wish I could speak like that, but I think I'm too old to learn it"

A good friend once said to her: "Anna, you are not an American. You'll never speak like them. Aren't you proud to be German?" But Anna was a perfectionist and because she loved the language so much, she wanted to be able to speak it perfectly. For her it had nothing to do with not being proud to be German. She loved her home country, of course.

The one thing she didn't like about coming back were the long flights on the plane. 8 hours, and that was just from Frankfurt, Germany to JFK International Airport, New York City. Additionally to that she had another national flight in Germany and the 2 hour trip from New York to Princeton. So all in all it took her almost 24 hours from the time she closed her front door at home until she opened the one to Greg's apartment.

Surprisingly this time the long hours had passed rather quickly. She was fortunate enough to have no layovers whatsoever and had spent the entire flight dwelling in memories of her past trips.

When she got of the plane she had to think back to the first time she ever said foot on American soil. How nervous and exited she had been! And how young and naive. Back then she had still believed that she had the world at her feet and had dreamed that somewhere in the "land of the free and home of the brave" her knight in shining armor would come along and sweep her off her feet. How very wrong and yet right she had been.

Everything looked so different and yet familiar at the same time.

Now, 10 years later she was standing here at almost the same spot. Only this time there was no Greg to pick her up. She hadn't called him on purpose, because she wanted to surprise him.

She could still clearly remember the first time she had laid eyes on Gregory House as if it were yesterday.

She was coming out of the secluded arrival area of the airport. A lot of people were waiting behind a pane for relatives and friends. Anna was struggling with her large suitcase and backpack which held almost all her belongings and at the same time was trying to make out the man, who was supposed to pick her up, through the sea of heads in front of her. She had only seen a picture of him until then.

"Anna Kruger?" a gruff, deep voice sounded right next to her head. She didn't know why, but she almost instantly liked it. She turned slightly to the right and saw a tall man standing next to her. He was about 6 ft. 3". His body was lean, but you could clearly see some well-formed muscles outlining against the navy blue band-shirt he was wearing. His feet stuck in some Nike sneakers and his dark-blue jeans looked slightly worn-out. His face was long and clean shaven and his rich brown hair was short and slightly standing up from his head.

Anna's first thought was that he was very handsome for his age. Shw knew that he was already 38 years old and at 16 he seemed like an old man to her.

But his most amazing feature were the crystal blue eyes. She immediately fell in love with them. They were watching her with an intense curiosity. Anna didn't fell intimidated by his scrutinizing stare at all, although she felt like her knees must be about to give away if he kept watching her like this.

"Greg House?" her heavy German accent seeped through her words. "Yeah, that's me" he said. "Stacy is still at work, so she sent me to pick you up. Not her brightest idea, I may add. I just suffered through a 12-hour shift at the hospital and 3 hours of heavy evening traffic on my way up here, so I am very aggravated right now and probably not the best choice for a welcome committee. But something tells me you are too tired and excited to care anyway, or rather that you won't remember much of this anyway in a while. Oh, and call me Greg"

He bent down to pick up her suitcase, turned around and started walking towards the exit of the airport, leaving a confused and nervous Anna in his wake to stumble after him.

The ride home was a blur to Anna. The first few minutes had been awkward. He had tried to make same small talk, but had clearly felt uncomfortable with it. Anna wavered somewhere between absolute cheerfulness and total exhaustion. On the one hand she was extremely tired from her 26-hour journey, including a 5 hours layover in Chicago, and therefore really had to struggle to keep her eyes open. On the other hand she was very excited to finally be here. Everything was new and different. But because Anna's English still wasn't very good she could hardly understand what Greg was saying to her. His pronunciation and choice of words were so much different from what she had been taught in school for the past 5 years. She had even more trouble with answering him. Not one coherent sentence wanted to come out of her mouth it seemed. She soon started to get frustrated and angry with herself and, to top it all, felt slightly embarrassed in front of this grumpy looking man who had this deep wisdom and intelligence shining through his incredible blue eyes. She wanted to make a good impression, because no matter how people tell you otherwise, first impressions ARE important and really DO count. But now she felt that she had failed miserably.

Therefore the ride home was mostly filled with awkward silence and Anna's stammered 2-word-answers to House's inquiries after the weather in Germany, her parents and her flight over.

Anna had to smile when she thought back to that day. How she had misjudged him in so many aspects and how right she had been in others. He had later told her that it was the same with him.

She waited for her suitcases at the luggage claim and made her way out of the airport. It was a nice, sunny spring morning. Winter had already faded away and made room balmy breeze that was sweeping the streets of New York on that particular morning. The trees were already green and birds were singing. For Anna it was the perfect weather. Not too hot and not too cold, just right. After the long, dark winter months, the sunny weather did a lot to cheer up her spirits, although she wouldn't have needed it on this day. She was already in a very good mood, looking forward to finally seeing Greg again.

She made her way over to the taxi stand and told the driver to take her to Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. Anna knew where he worked now, because he had mentioned it in his e-mails and letters a couple of time. When they arrived at the hospital after a 1 1/2 hours drive, the traffic had been very light, she immediately went to the nurse's station in the front lobby and asked for Dr. House's office. The nurse on duty sent her a sympathetic look and directed her to the 2nd floor.

Anna could here Greg as soon as she stepped out of the elevator. He was yelling, throwing with medical terms, obscenities and insults around him.

Once again, the beginning of a smile tucked at the corners of Anna's mouth. Without even seeing him, Anna had recognized Greg immediately. His voice and way of talking was still the same, even after 8 years. _'Some things never change'_ she thought, making her way towards the conference room.

When she reached the glass door, she saw a large room with a greyish looking carpet. On the left side was what appeared to be a kitchen counter with a sink and a coffee maker standing on it. There were also some book shelves with a lot of medical books on them. On the right side of the room there was another door leading to an adjoining room. _'Probably Greg's office'_, Anna thought. The middle of the room was dominated by a rectangular glass table on which three intimidated-looking people in lab codes sat. Two men and one rather young and pretty looking woman, Anna noted. _'This must be his latest team'_ Anna figured. They all had their eyes fixed on a certain point. Anna followed their line of vision and was greeted with the backside of none other than Gregory House. He was standing in front of a white board, a black marker in hand with which he was furiously scribbling down some medical terms.

From what Anna could see he still looked pretty much as she remembered him. Same Nike sneakers, worn-out jeans with a blue button-down shirt hanging over them. _'He still doesn't care for appropriate work attire'_ she thought _'and gets away with it. Some things really never do change'. _

His hair style was still the same, although his formerly deep brown hair seemed to be slightly thinning at the back of his head and was streaked with grey.

The only major difference was his leg. Anna had noticed the cane that was leaning against the conference table immediately. House stood upright, but his right knee was slightly bent. He seemed to be putting most of his way on his left leg. Anna knew all about the infarction of course, although she had never actually seen him walk with his limp or seen his scar.

She watched him and his team for a few seconds. They were all so engrossed in their work that they hadn't even noticed her yet.

Suddenly House voice sounded through the room: ""Well Taub, I am surprised that such a little guy like you had so much in his pants"

Before anybody could respond, Anna felt that it was about time to make her presence known.

"8 years and you are still the same obnoxious a, who doesn't care for other peoples feelings and treats everyone like crap" she said.

Everyone except House turned around to see who had just been speaking.

When they finally broke apart, House looked down at her and asked: "Are you hungry?"

"No, not really", Anna answered. "I already ate on the plane and I think their "delicious continental breakfast" which consisted of a mushy sandwich which tasted like it had already been eaten before, made me a little nauseous and damp the appetite considerably. At least for the time being.

"I am really tired, though. I think long flights are just not my thing". She looked up at House with heavy eyes and he could clearly see the exhaustion in them.

"Well, I still have some work to do. Doctor-Stuff, you know" he smirked at her. "Not really important, though. Just saving a stupid patient from dying. I could ditch it and had home with you, if you want me to. Only problem is my boss. She is a real btch". House send a nasty smirk towards Cuddy who was standing next to the door, still looking awestruck.

"She'd probably feel the need to punish me if I let one of those idiots die. Don't understand why, tough. The world could actually be a better place with a few less morons running around." All people in the room, including Anna, rolled their eyes.

"Anyway, my evil, sadistic boss would probably assign me a worse parking space and would could off my free-access to her fun-bags and stop wearing low-cut tops."

Anna had to smile again. It seemed that she was doing this a lot lately. "That's fine, Greg. I don't want to be responsible for a complete change of your boss' wardrobe. Imagine what it would cost!" House nodded his head eagerly.

"No, I think the cheaper alternative is if you stay here and do whatever you are paid to do and won't draw your boss' wrath to you, and I head back to your apartment and crash their for a while and by the time you get home, my stomach will have hopefully calmed down and you can feed me". Anna looked expectantly at House.

"Are you sure that's alright with you?" he asked "I mean, if you want to, you can just stay here and watch me work my magic. I'll try to be quick, so that'll have more time for you. The ducklings are used to it. I always tell them how important sharing is and you know, there is plenty of me to go around. As soon as I am than here I can take you for a ride. On my motorcycle, I mean".

The sexual innuendo wasn't lost to Anna. It was so typical for Greg. She knew that he was just kidding, though.

There had never been anything but friendship between the two of them and there was a time when Anna had wished that there was more, but life was in the way and Greg had never shown any interest in her. At one point Anna had thought that she couldn't live with the knowledge that nothing would ever happen between them and that Greg would never look at her like a woman, with love and desire in his eyes, like he had looked at Stacy.

Later Anna realized that it had just been a phase. A harmless school girl crush, because he was the first man who had been nice and attentive towards her without the intention of dragging her into his bed. And that, Anna realized, meant even more to her than them being lovers. She valued his friendship very much and his honest interest in her and her life were even more important to her than any sexual relationship could ever be.

At least that was what she was telling standing in his office now. He had always thrown suggestive remarks at her and she had always ignored them and this was exactly what she chose to do now, too.

"It's really no problem, Greg. I'm sure you do perform real miracles here, but I'd much rather just go home and take a little nap. I can take a cab again. With all my language it's more practical anyway"

House looked a little bit disappointed but nodded finally. She really was tired and diagnosing their patient could take god knows how long, especially since they hadn't come up with one decent idea, yet.

"Okay, but let me at least pay for the cab". He grabbed in the back pocket of his pants, took out his wallet and key to his apartment and handed Anna a 20 $ bill as well as the key.

"Thanks." was all she said.

"You're welcome" House replied. He leaned down and gave her a peck on the cheek. Anna turned around, smiled slyly at the other people in the room for the first time and with a "see you later" thrown over her shoulder, she was gone.

After she had left, House still had the shadow of a smile on his face. The silence in the room was deafening. After a few seconds, Cuttner began to shift uncomfortable in his chair. The creaking of the furniture brought House out of his reverie. He looked at the people in the room, an almost surprised look on his face as if he had totally forgotten about their presence and was now just remembering that they were still there and he wasn't alone. His almost happy expression was immediately replaced by his usual mask of indifference. His team and even Cuddy were still staring at him wide-eyed.

"What?!" House barked. "Is my fly open, snot hanging out of my nose or have I suddenly grown little green antennas on my head?" His team looked away awkwardly.

Cuddy was the first one to regain her speech.

"Dr. House, you still owe me five clinic hours. TODAY. I suggest that after diagnosing your patient, you'll get right behind them, before you do anything else." She sent him a stern look.

"Why, Dr. Cuddy, did your wide-open mouth just interfere with your hearing ability? If so, I am utterly sorry. All that silicon in your boobs must have finally gotten to your head. Let me tell you again: I HAVE PLANS FOR TONIGHT" House almost yelled the last sentence.

"Well, Dr. House" Cuddy answered in a stern voice. "If your plans for the evening are not hospital or work related in any way, I am afraid you'll have to reschedule. This hospital has done a lot for you during the last few years. I think that it is about time you'll give something back"

House looked very angry. Why was Cuddy all of a sudden so eager to load him up with all that work? She usually didn't really care if he did all his clinic hours. Sure, she reminded him of them about 5 times a day and yelled regularly at him for not doing them, but he usually found a way to sneak out of doing them and she didn't really care. What was different now? Especially since she had witnessed this little interaction with Anna.

Anna. That was it! Cuddy didn't really care if he did his work or not. Well, at least not any more than usual. She, as well as Taub, Cuttner and 13 just was curious who Anna, the _mystery woman_, House figured that this would probably be her name within a few hours throughout the hospital, was.

His new team was at this point still too intimidated by him to say anything at all and Cuddy probably figured that she wouldn't get a true answer if she confronted him directly.

'_She is right'_ House thought. _'But I am still not going to make it that easy for her, no matter her breast-size'. _

"Oh, but Dr. Cuddy, my plans for tonight actually ARE of a certain work nature". Cuddy looked surprised, so did the rest of his team.

"You see" House went on "the woman who just left is my favourite hooker. Since I'm working really hard for the hospital every day, you know yelling at these stupid morons here" he waved towards his team "stealing Wilson's lunch, hiding from you and your pointless clinic hours etc. bla bla, I just need a distraction once in a while. It helps me do my job. And YOU depend on me doing my job well. The hospital depends on it. I'd like to see how you would explain a drastically increased mortality rate to the hospital board and your beloved donors if I actually stopped doing my job how you so often suggest with you meaningless threads of firing me. If you'll excuse me now, I'll have a life to save, so that you can squeeze your rotundas a in your comfortable chair and brownnose a few more potential donors"

With that House turned around again, picked up his marker and began once again to scribble away on the whiteboard and yell at his team for suggestions.

Cuddy's expression had changed from smugness to disbelief to anger to resignation within a few seconds.

Figuring that she was just wasting her time here and that House wouldn't cave, neither regarding his clinic hours nor his revealing the identity of this mystery woman, Cuddy turned on her 3-inch-heels and walked away silently admitting defeat to herself. _'Trust Greg House to deflect anything personal with a smart a remark'_ she thought. As much as Lisa Cuddy hated to admit it, House had once again been right, Even if she, as well as a large part of the hospital staff, didn't like it a bit.

A/N: that was the 2nd chapter. I hope you guys liked it. Please tell me what you think!

Sorry for not really getting on with the story, but I felt that I had to bring some background information on Anna, although you guys still don't really know what her connection with House is (or can you already guess?). But don't worry, it will be revealed soon.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N.: So here's the third chapter. I don't really know if I should continue this story. I mean, I know where it should go, I am just not sure at the moment how to get there. Please people, tell me what you think!

Oh and once ain, I am really sorry about all the mistakes and my limited vocabulary.

**Chapter 3**

It had taken House and his team another four hours, endless yelling on House's part and countless tests performed by his team, till they had finally come up with a plausible diagnosis for their patient. It had turned out that the patient with the stupid name had a stupid illness: Lupus.

House couldn't believe it. After all these years of suspecting Lupus at least twice in every patient they treated, he had finally had one who actually had it. Diagnostically Lupus was boring of course, and if House's mood hadn't gone up at least 8 notches when Anna walked into his office this morning, at least by now it would range definitely in the negative and he'd be ready for some solitary piano playing, at least ½ a bottle of his good scotch and some Vicodin till he blacked out.

But as it was, Anna was indeed back in for the first time in years, House actually looked forward to going back to his apartment.

He was just about to grab his backpack and leave his office for the day, when a dissipated Wilson stormed in.

"Who is Anna and what are you doing hugging her in the middle of the conference room where everybody, especially your entire team, can see you?"

House just looked intently at him for a few seconds. He then said in a nonchalant voice: "Took you long enough. I expected you here at least 3 hours ago, and who told you anyway?"

Wilson seemed to have caught his breath by now. He walked over to House's desk.

"Well, I've been in surgery since lunch. I just got out half an hour ago. The surgery nurses were talking about it. Nurse Nancy said that she heard from Nurse Clara down in Radiology that you were making out with a German girl in the middle of your office. Kitler, the new anesthetist, insisted that he had heard that she was a illegal Russian hooker you had hired just to drive Cuddy nuts. Everyone contributed another piece and at the end the puzzle consisted of you doing the nasty with 3 women, including Cuddy, in the middle of the front lobby. It was rather amusing, actually. As soon as I got out of the operation room I went to the clinic to look for you, but you weren't there.

On my way up here I ran into Cuddy and she told me what really happened. That you were, despite the presence of other people in the room, being nice to a strange woman, even hugging her! So, what's going on?"

Wilson looked questioningly at House, who just frowned: "Hospital gossip. Worse than my aunt Mildred and her horde of post-menopausal friends at their weekly coffee klatsch. How did the patient make it?" 

"The patient is fine. We were able to remove the tumor completely. But that's not really the point. The story of the cold-hearted bstard gone soft is all over the hospital. The important thing is that you DIDN'T tell me" Wilson sounded slightly disappointed and upset.

"Oh, grow up!" House was clearly annoyed now "I didn't tell you, because I had a patient who was in a coma and about to die. Would you rather if I had dropped everything and came running to you as soon as Anna left. I wonder what Cuddy would have said if I had let the patient die so I could engage in some girly chit-chat with you."

His last comment about Cuddy shut Wilson up, so House went on: "I haven't seen Anna for a long, long time and I hugged her, because I was happy to see her again. We - "

"Oh, my God!" Wilson obviously regained his speech "I am sorry, but I really have to sit down now". House watched him making his way over to the next chair and plopping down in it.

"Greg House, the grumpy, misanthropic diagnostician actually happy to see another human being?? The end must really be nigh! Maybe I should just abandon my dying patients and head for Rio, or at least Vegas, to enjoy my last remaining days. I mean, I could get married again, haven't done that in a while." he looked thoughtful for a moment

"I always wanted to have a Vegas-wedding. The Little White Wedding Chapel and an Elvis impersonator singing "Love me tender". That'd be great. You know, Bonnie wanted the traditional wedding. White dress, big church, about 200 guests, and that was just her side of the family. And than there was Julie, she wanted…"

House just rolled his eyes "If you don't shut up soon, there won't be any days left to enjoy or a fourth Mrs. Wilson to cheat on, because I will personally see to your instant death. I know all about you failed marriages and wedding disaster, by the way. I was your best man at your second and third wedding, remember? Oh and not that it matters, but your marrying a woman is always a mistake whether it's done in some fancy church in New Jersey with a horde of distant relatives and people who call themselves your friend and who you haven't seen in 10 years or haven't talked to more than twice and who are all just there for the free food, or whether it's done in some ugly chapel with a priest who obtained his licence over the internet and half-drunken, paid best men. Neither the first nor the second will keep little James from wandering around from one needy nurse to the next, and big Wilson from getting yet another divorce."

Wilson held up his hands in defence: "Okay, okay, I won't go to Vegas or any other place with a church. I'll stay here for the time being and I'll be quiet. Just tell me who this mystery woman is."

House considered him for a moment, another snide remark already at the ready, but than he decided that it had been enough bantering for the moment. He was still enjoying the fairly good mood Anna's appearance had caused. House felt the odd need to share it with somebody and Wilson was the only person he could really talk to.

"Anna is someone from a long time ago. You could almost say from another lifetime" Wilson noticed that House had an almost melancholic look on his face. He seemed to be deep in thought. Wilson didn't say anything. If Wilson wanted to get anything out of his best friend he figured he'd better wait until House was ready to reveal whatever memories he was dwelling in right now.

After a few minutes of silence, House came out of his reverie. He looked at Wilson who was expectantly watching him. Suddenly House had a mischievous idea. He loved getting a rise out of the oncologist. Wilson was such an easy target.

"Anna is my daughter. She – "

House continued. Once again Wilson's shocked reaction didn't disappoint him.

"WHAT?" Wilson nearly screamed, "You must be kidding. Please tell me you are kidding, House! You never told me that you had a child! How did this come about? By what I heard Anna is at least in her 20's. What about the mother? Was she some poor college girl you knocked up and left broken hearted? Did you ever take responsibility, pay child support? And did Stacey even know about her?"

"Anna is 27. I've always been a little premature. I never paid any child support, sent Christmas cards, or took her to the zoo on Sundays, because I didn't even meet her until 10 years ago.

And of course Stacey knew about her. After all, Anna was her daughter, too" by now Wilson looked utterly confused.

"But I don't understand you and Stacey became an item shortly after you met and that was" Wilson thought for a moment, counting with is fingers "what, like ten years ago? Anna must have been a teen already. How can she possible be your daughter? Unless you adopted her of course, but why would anyone want to adopt a pubescent girl?"

It was just too funny to see Wilson's brain-cells working in overdrive. House had to really pull himself together to keep from laughing out loud. He considered torturing Wilson some more, but finally decided against it. After all, he really wanted to tell someone about Anna and Wilson was the only possible candidate. They had been friends for almost 8 years. Wilson was also one of the few chosen ones who knew about House's life before the infarction and his time at PPTH. At least some of it. House decided that now was the time to fill some of the remaining blanks, although Wilson wasn't really aware of them.

"Stacey and I met 12 years ago and I asked her to move in 5 days later. If you want to construct a theory, make sure you get the facts right. I'll forgive you this time, though. it's just too funny to see you confused. I should really do this more often" Wilson frowned and was about to say something, but House quickly continued: "Relax. Anna is not our biological daughter and we didn't adopt her either. We picked her."

"You what?" By Wilson's look it was quite apparent that he didn't follow at all. "You picked her? Out of a catalogue or something? What does that mean?"

"Not out of a catalogue, you moron. That would be like slave trade, like some poor Thai girl in the catalogue of a partner agency who comes here in hopes of escaping her constricted life in her Asian home country and living the American dream but all she gets is a fat, ugly guy who can't score babes the regular way and has just enough money to buy himself a sex slave who cooks, does his laundry and keeps quiet because she doesn't speak the language. The ideal woman, come to think of it."

Wilson could have remarked that House's way of finding women couldn't really be considered normal either. Ever since his break-up with Stacey 7 years ago, House hadn't been in a normal relationship. Wilson didn't even know if his friend had any sex. There was this one time with Stacey when she came back for a short time about 4 years ago, but other than that…House talked about hookers all the time, but Wilson figured that this was mainly just talk. He suspected that once in a while House picked up some woman at a bar and brought her home for a causal one-night stand, but he couldn't be sure.

Because Wilson was really curious about this Anna girl, he left House's opinion on forced marriages unremarked and let him continue

"No, we picked Anna out of the catalogue of an Exchange Student Organization. One of Stacey's associates in her law firm had had an Exchange student from Germany the year before. He had told her what a great experience it was having someone from another country live with them. That she was such a sweet girl and enrichment to their lives. After a few months of his daily brain wash, Stacey was on fire and absolutely wanted to have one of her own. The guy at her work told her about the organization they were with; a lady came by and inspected our apartment, if we had enough room, no drugs lying around, the usual. Of course, at that time I wasn't on Vicodin yet. Shame actually. Maybe it would have disqualified us. Anyway, we got a catalogue with a bunch of exchange students to choose from. We picked Anna, because Stacey thought she looked just pretty and nice enough to be shown off at her company but not beautiful enough to tempt me"

House wiggled his eyebrows suggestively at Wilson who just looked disgusted.

"2 months later Anna arrived and stayed with us for a year. After that she left and went back to Germany. We stayed in touch. Another year later she came back again to visit. Shortly after that my leg and the break up with Stacey happened. Anna finished school at home and went to college. The first time I saw her again was about 4 hours ago. End of story."

"What do you mean, end of story?" Wilson asked. It felt save to talk again and although he now had a general idea who this Anna person was and how she was linked to House, there were still a lot of things in the dark. "That can't be it! You agreed to Stacey's idea just like that? And how did you even manage to live with another human being, a woman no less for an entire year? I thought the only people you could ever tolerate more than 5 minutes in a row were Stacey, your mother and me! Even I can't live with you for more than 4 days without being ready to kill you! How did the poor girl survive?" Wilson sounded genuinely surprised.

"Oh, Wilson, Are you jealous? Don't worry, I still love you. You'll always have a special place in that cold heart of mine. Of course I didn't agree to this stupid idea!" House barked. "Well at least not at first. But Stacey just wouldn't let it go. And neither my insistence that we weren't ready for a child, not to mention a 16-year old pubescent girl, nor my pointing out that we wouldn't have much time for her anyway with me working double shifts at the hospital and her case loads, could convince her otherwise. What's a guy to do after weeks of a pouting girlfriend, badly cooked dinners and sex deprivation? I finally caved. Yes, it's finally proven now, men are the weak sex.

Turns out that it wasn't too bad after all. The girl was so happy that someone had taken pity on her and taken her in. She was polite and full of gratitude and didn't talk a lot, because she couldn't speak English very well and I hardly saw her anyway. I worked 2nd shift a lot and by the time I came home she was already in bed. Stacey was happy, because she had a girl to talk to, who, on top, helped with cooking and cleaning. And I got some on a regular basis again. So everybody was satisfied. It was a win-win situation."

Wilson had a big, satisfied grin plastered on his face. Now it was House's turn to look confused. "What? I know that the story was really funny, although I messed up the second punch line a little, but you don't notice such nuances anyway. But why do you have to grin like a 5-year old in September who has just been told that Christmas has come 3 months earlier this year?" he asked.

If possible, Wilson's grin widened even more. "You like her, House. The strange, unwelcome German girl warmed your cold, cold stony heart. I didn't think I'd see that day were another human being would manage to make the unfathomable Greg House care for them, even though it was 10 years ago, already. Still, I absolutely GOT to meet this woman. She must either be a real angel or the devil himself."

Wilson waited for the snide a remark that would undoubtedly follow from House, but nothing came. House just studied his best friends for a few seconds, than he picked up is backpack that was sitting ready on his desk ever since Wilson came in, and started to make his way towards the door of his office.

Wilson became slightly annoyed. He waited for House to say something. When House had reached the door he turned around and smirked at the oncologist. "Think what you want, Wilson. I don't have time for your girly talk about my feelings right now. Got an evil boss with a great cleavage, but stupid clinic hours to avoid." _And some pleasant company waiting for me at home_, he added silently.

"Night House" Wilson yelled after his best friend who was already out the door and making his way towards the elevator. "Tell her I said 'Hi' and that I'm looking forward to meeting the woman our much-hated diagnostician actually cares about."

House just kept on walking, pretending he hadn't heard Wilson, who was standing in his office door, still grinning from ear to ear.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Sorry it has taken me so long to update again

**A/N: Sorry it has taken me so long to update again. I hope I'll be able to update more frequently from now on.**

**Disclaimer: still not mine. All characters (yes, House too) belong to FOX and David Shore! I wish they didn't….**

**Reviews are greatly appreciated!! **

**Chapter 4 ****– part I**

When House dismounted his motorcycle in front of his building he could see light shining through the window of his living room. 

He opened the front door of his apartment and stepped inside. He expected to see Anna on the couch, being asleep or watching TV, but besides the glow the floor lamp next to his couch was emitting and the quiet noises the TV was making, the room was completely empty. The kitchen light was turned off, so she couldn't be in there, unless she was searching for food in the darkness. 

Looking for food in Greg House's kitchen was a hopeless quest anyway. He rarely bothered to buy real food or to cook. 

Most of the time he ate in the hospital cafeteria, stole Wilson's food or ordered in. He mainly subsisted from Scotch and Vicodin anyway. 

"Honey, I am home!" House yelled cheerfully. There was no reaction. 'Maybe she is in the bathroom', he thought. 

He threw his backpack down, shrugged his leather jacket off and limped over to the couch where he plopped down and put up his feet without taking his shoes off. He had to grin. Anna would hate that. 

House had never really cared about things that were considered proper. When the cushions got a little dirty, so what? It was the part of the couch where his feet were all the time, anyway. He always sat on his couch the same way, because Greg House liked routine and he liked it when things stayed the same. Anomalies bothered and intrigued him at the same time. 

Stacy had always complained about his habit of putting his dirty shoes up on the furniture. But that was just one of the many little things she hadn't like about him. He had never changed or even bothered to try. Stacey had known what she had got herself into from the beginning. He had told her all about his flaws on their first date. Maybe that was the reason why it hadn't gone very well. Nevertheless, she had moved in a week later and stayed for 5 years.

Most people treated House differently than anybody else, because he was a jerk. They expected him to behave like an ass and therefore had no expectations of him. Not Anna, tough.

She had always been different. She had certain expectations of life and people and expected them to behave accordingly. And she made no exceptions. Not even for him. 

He could still clearly remember the first time he had put his shoes on the couch in her presence as it were yesterday:

_It was the first evening of __Anna's stay. Stacey and he had sat down in front of the TV while Anna was unpacking her suitcase in her new room, which had previously been House's study and in which they had - due to Stacey's constant insistence that the girl needed a room of her own and couldn't sleep on the couch for a year - put up a bed, a desk and a dresser. Much to House's dismay, of course. _

_He had__ flat out refused to give her his beloved oak desk he had inherited from his grandfather a few years back, so Stacey had driven to WalMart the day before and bought a not too expensive teen-desk and matching chair which Stacey wanted him to put together. After 30 minutes of utter refusal on his part, Stacey had ended up doing it herself while House was smugly watching TV. _

_If the girl hadn't arrived that day House would have ended up with no dinner and a pouting Stacey who wouldn't have talked to him for at least a day, but as it was, this Anna girl was to arrive in a few hours and since Stacey wanted very badly to leave a good impression, one good enough to compensate for his undoubtedly bad one, she had no choice but to quietly overlook his faux pas this time._

_She used to say that "The first impression often determines the sentence". Like this was a courtroom and they were put to trail House thought. _

_Although in a way he felt like being the defendant in a courtroom here. His whole behaviour was closely scrutinized and then jugged by Stacey and this Anna girl and if he didn't behave the like wanted him to, Stacey would impose harsh punishment on him, like badly cooked dinners and sex-deprivation. 'Great' House frowned. 'This girl was here not even an hour and already made is life hell'. _

_When Anna entered the room __a few minutes later she looked awfully tired and exhausted. Even more than before, House noticed. _

_He sat on the couch, his feet up on the cushions still wearing his Nike sneakers, like usual. Stacey sat with a somewhat stiff posture in the armchair next to him. _

'_She never really __drops her __countenance_' _House thought. House was out of countenance all the time. But nevertheless or maybe even because of that, was this one of Stacey's traits that House found so attractive about her._

_Anna stood hesitatingly at the door, apparently not really sure what she was supposed to do. House rolled his eyes 'great' he thought 'another timid, self-conscious brownnoser, like I haven't enough of them at work already.'_

"_Anna!" Stacey exclaimed when she became aware of the girl's presence. "Do come in! You don't have to stand at the door. You live here now too. That means you can walk around freely in the apartment, go wherever you want - "_

"_Except our bedroom!" House piped up "it's absolutely off limits. Wouldn't want you to get traumatized by walking in on us having sex and I end up having to pay the shrink trying fix your already screwed up teenager soul, which was long ago damaged beyond repair because Daddy or Uncle Adolf couldn't keep his little friend in his pants -"_

_Stacey's forceful push against his shoulder silenced him. "Ouch, what was that for?" he yelled, rubbing his shoulder. Stacey sent a death glare in his direction while addressing Anna in what she thought was a sweet and comforting voice she used every time she tried to convince female members of the jury of her client's innocence. House thought it just sounded faked and silly, but he wasn't about to tell her that. Not when he was still licking his wounds from her latest attack._

_"Don't worry, sweetie" Stacey continued, flashing Anna a smile. "Greg was just kidding. His sense of humor needs some getting used to. Of course you are allowed to enter our bedroom if you want to. Don't worry about surprising us in ANY" another death glare was shot House's way "kind of position. There won't be any of that in the near future. I can assure you" House just frowned but kept quiet._

"_And now, why don't you sit down, Anna dear. You look really tired." Stacey pointed to the only vacant chair in the room. It was a big, comfortable recliner that stood on the other end of the couch. The end where House's feet were located. Anna nodded uneasily. During House's and Stacey's "conversation" she hadn't said a word. Her initial confusion about House's words had - once she had progressed, translated and understood them - turned to annoyance. Who did this man think he was? _

_Here she was in a foreign country with people who didn't talk her language and who she didn't know at all but who she was supposed to live with for the next year and one of them had done nothing but made her feel unwelcome. _

_On top of that he seemed to have no manners at all. He behaved rudely not only towards her, but towards his girlfriend as well. So far she didn't understand what Stacey saw in this guy._

_Stacey appeared to be a nice, sensible person, who could be tough if she need to and knew exactly what she wanted and apparently she wanted this impolite, harsh man with his wicked sense of humor. _

_These thoughts made Anna shake her head. She would never understand why some couples were together. Why sometimes people who were totally different or just plain weird for that matter, were attracted to each other was beyond her. _

"_Ah, look at this" House amused voice interrupted her musings "she might not have the ability to speak, but at least she's not deaf and too dim-witted to express her wishes non-verbally. She shakes her head and that means 'no', even in that barbaric Nazi-country of hers on the other side of the big, big ocean I assume. So, 'no' she won't willingly feel the need to enter our bedroom and scare the living hell out of Mt. Gregory so that it won't be possible to climb him for the next few days. Problem solved." House looked smugly around. _

_Stacey looked like she was about ready to kill him, but before she could say anything, Anna spoke up for the first time she had been in the room. Maybe it was the exhaustion or just his abrasive behaviour towards her all day, but Anna had finally had enough and was about to tell him so. _

"_Oh, don't worry, Greg" Anna said. She pronounced his name more with a C- instead of a G-, so it sounded almost like Craig._

"_I surely won't be coming into your bedroom, because firstly __**I **__don't want to be scared for life upon the realization of how poorly bestowed Americans are. I might lose faith in all of your people right from the very start. _

_Then of course I am clearly aware, that there is a black sheep in every flock and that not every single person of a whole nation is a rude scumbag, who doesn't seem to care about other people's feelings or shows any manners at all. _

_By the way, putting one's feed up on the couch without taking the shoes off is considered bad manners where I come from and that's probably the same in that "progressive" country of yours where 90 of the population still think that Darwin was a blasphemer and that there's a difference between killing a life by aborting a child and imposing the death sentence, I assume." _

_When Anna had finished her little tirade, there was a dead silence in the room. Stacey's mouth hung open and her face registered deep and utter shock. _

_House and Anna were silently staring into each other's eyes. Bright blue met deep brown. The tension in the room was so thick that you could almost here it crackle._

'_Maybe I have gone too far, insulting my host parents who were volunteering to take me in and give me food and shelter for a year, getting no money in exchange' Anna thought. She didn't know where the words had come from. Maybe it was really the tiredness or just Greg's demeanor that annoyed her so much, but there was no taking them back now and she wasn't about to back down. So she firmly held his gaze._

_After about a minute what seemed forever to Anna, something in Greg's face changed. His initially surprised look which had soon turned into anger vanished. His harsh features softened and a small smile appeared on his face._

"_Now look at that, Stacey" he said without looking in Stacey's direction at all. He still stared at Anna. "Our little daughter here can talk after all. And what a mouth she got on her. She clearly gets that from me" House had an almost proud look on his face. "You know what they say ' the __acorn__doesn't__fall__far__from__the__tree__'." And with that he took his feet of the couch and bend down to untie his shoes._

_Anna sighed deeply and relaxed back in her chair. Stacey still hadn't uttered a word. She was, if even possible, even more shocked then before._

_From this moment forth Greg House was nothing but polite and sweet to Anna. He didn't really know why that was. There was just something about Anna and her nature that brought out his best behavior and it didn't even bother him or cause him any discomfort at all. _

_House never yell at her, no matter what she did, nor did he take out his bad mood or anger on her and never once did he put his shoes up on the couch whenever Anna was around._

**TBC…**

HOUSEMDHOUSEMDHOUSEMDHOUSEMDHOUSEMDHOUSEMDHOUSEMD

**A/N: That was the first part of Chapter 4. I splitted it because it's quite long. Sorry about the long flashback. There won't be many more in the future. This story concentrates on Anna and House's relationship in the present (after they see each other again after 10 years). I just tried to explain their background why House is so nice to her. **


	5. Chapter 4 Part II

A/N

**A/N.: All rights belong to Mr. ****Shore and the FOX network. Neither do I own any of the characters heart-wrenching-cry nor am I making any money with this story. I write for my pleasure and the pleasure of my readers only!**

**Chapter 4 – Part II**

Brought back to the present by the sound of the flushing of a toilet House frowned. That was the second time today his thoughts had drifted to Stacey and their time together.

This was all Anna's fault. Her appearance brought back all those memories he usually tried so hard, and most of the time successfully, to repress.

Where was she anyway, what could take a single person so long in the bathroom? He heard the door open and then steps coming down the hallway. Out of reflex he immediately put down his feet and started taking his shoes off.

She entered the room: "Greg! You're home already! I didn't expect you for at least another hour!"

'Home' he thought. 'She had said 'home'. Strange to hear somebody else refer to his apartment as 'home'. But that's what it was, wasn't it? For a year it had been her home too and in a way it still was'.

The thought of someone sharing his home again evoked a strange feeling in him. It felt good.

'Stop it!' he thought. 'You never feel good, at least not since your infarction and since Stacey has left you. And Anna…'

Anna. He wasn't about to let Anna see his conflicting emotions. Especially not when this was an entirely new situation for him. He had to deal with this alone first.

So he did what Greg House did best: make a sarcastic remark. "I am home early, because we diagnosed our patient earlier than we thought and I've been here for a very looong" – he stretched the long out – "time already. Thought you had fallen in. I was just about to call Wilson and make him crawl down the pipe to look for you.

I would have done it myself, but bad leg, you know." He pointed towards his damaged thigh. "No more strenuous efforts for his fellow. Although there's another member on the team who is still able to perform excellently."

He wriggled his eyebrows suggestively. Anna just rolled her eyes and strode over to the couch.

"I took a shower, you know and I didn't need long at all. I was in there less than half an hour. And when you've been here such a long time like you say you have, why are you only now taking off your shoes?"

House looked at her with a mocking stern look in his eyes, which she held. After what seemed like an eternity but couldn't have been more than half a minute and neither of them breaking the gaze House finally admitted defeat. "Touché" he said, smiling.

Anna smiled back at him, leaned forward, placed one hand on his shoulder and gave him a peck on the cheek.

"Thank you for being you" she whispered into his ear "It's nice to see that even after such a long time nothing has really changed. I really missed you"

Her kiss on his cheek and her touch on his shoulder were feather light. He noticed the subtle smell of lavender. 'When did she start wearing perfume? He thought.

House suddenly felt an inexplicable closeness to her he had never felt before and something began to stir in his pants.

'Damn' he thought. 'What the fuck is going on?' This certainly hadn't happened before. House had always felt a deep affection for Anna. Ever since that first evening in the living room when she had looked at him in this special way of hers.

But during all this time, during all their hugging and sometimes even cuddling – which hadn't happened very often, because Greg House was just not a very affectionate person - he had never once been sexually attracted to Anna. Hugging was something for stuffed teddy bears like Cameron and total wusses like Chase. People who still believed in fairy tales and whose greatest wish was _world peace_.

In a way, Anna was like those people too. 'But only the I squeeze you till you suffocate-part' House thought 'and not the total annoying loser-part'.

It had taken a few weeks, in which she hadn't spoken much, except her passionate speech on her first that was, but once Anna had warmed up to them, she had surprisingly babbled none-stop and hugged them as often as she could get a hold of one of them. Strangely enough that hadn't even bothered House. He hadn't even tried to avoid it at all cost like one would have him expected to do and even though he couldn't really admit that he liked it he nevertheless learned to accept it.

That was of course when it still hadn't stimulated him in any way. What the hell was different now?

'She's grown up, you idiot' he thought. 'She's matured from a thin, clumsy teenage-girl into a beautiful woman with just the right curves who knows how to carry herself'.

His pants became even tighter. 'Oh God, stop it! Stop it right now you horny old bastard' he yelled at himself silently.

Anna whose hand was still delicately placed on his shoulder could tell by House's troubled expression that something was going on. Tough she had no idea what was bothering him.

"Greg, is everything alright?" she asked with a concerned tone in her voice.

Her words brought him out of reverie. He looked at her like he had never seen her before. Her face was so close to his. These beautiful features with her high cheek bones and smooth skin. He noticed the wrinkles on her forehead which became more and more pronounced the longer she looked at him, a concerned expression on her face. Her lips were of a deep red, invitingly glistening. How much he wanted to take her face in both of his hands, lick all the salvia away from her lips and suck on them till they were bruised.

His erection was almost painful now and visibly straining against his pants. Hopefully Anna hadn't noticed his current predicament, yet. She hadn't. She was way to busy wondering why House was so absent and angry looking all of a sudden.

'Get a grip, old man' House told himself and abruptly stood up, pushing Anna's hand away roughly and almost knocking her over in the process. She hastily took a step backwards. He quickly limped around the couch, away from her. His back was now turned to her so she wouldn't notice his little friend, who was still standing at full attention.

"Nothing ever changes. That's the tragic of life" he said in a gruffer voice than he had intended.

Anna looked at him open-mouthed. The concern from just a few moments ago had clearly turned into confusion now. She just couldn't understand what had brought this sudden change of demeanor about. One minute he was like always engaging in harmless banter with her like the they had always done and which she enjoyed a lot and the next he was all quiet and absent looking and then even physically, almost forcefully, pushing her away. That was definitely something he hadn't done before.

House sensed that he might have overreacted and that it had startled and confused Anna. With his back still turned to her he forced himself to speak in a calmer, somewhat gentle voice: "I've had kind of a rough day at the hospital. Stupid, boring team, an annoying, nosey Wilson and a bitching boss, something about pointless clinic hours, to deal with. On top of all of that there were a bunch of sick people I had to work hard all day to avoid and the one I couldn't turned out to have the most uninteresting illness there ever was: Lupus.

And because Wilson was in surgery all afternoon I couldn't steal his lunch or money today. So now I am really hungry and I always get a little grumpy whenever I am not fed."

I finally turned towards Anna, but only his head and sent her a gentle smile and an almost apologetic look "Hey, what about you. That delicious microwave airplane food should be digested by now. What do you say I order us some pizza?"

Tough still a little confused about his earlier behaviour, Anna was glad that he had found back to his usual attitude. She smiled back at him "that's not a bad idea. I really could use some food now" as if on cue her stomach suddenly started to growl. They both started to laugh. The tension seemed almost broken.

House picked up the phone and dialled the number of the delivery service. "What do you want on yours?" he asked.

"Pepperoni, mushrooms and extra cheese. I am going to set the table while you place the order" Anna made her way towards the kitchen to retrieve the cutlery and plates from the cupboard. House grinned again "Same as always, I see. It's good to see that some things really never change" he yelled after her.

And as Anna went about setting the table and House waited for the guy of the pizza service to pick up the phone, they - unaware of the other's thoughts - were both thinking along the same lines. They both realized that they had been wrong: Something was defiantly changing right now.

**Tbc**

**Please leave some feedback!**


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

**Author's Note: **

**A very ****huge 'thank you' to all who have read and this story so far and have taken the time to review!**

**I'm not really satisfied with this chapter. Also, the story has somehow developed a way of its own. I am not really sure where it is going, but I'll try to get it back on track in the next few chapters.**

**I hope you people like this chapter and continue reading!**

**Disclaimer: all characters, with the exception of any, belong to FOX and David Shore**

**Chapter 5**

They sat at House's dining room table eating their pizzas. House had ordered an extra large BBQ Pizza with salami, ham, onion and bacon for himself and a medium sized pizza with pepperoni, mushrooms and extra cheese for Anna.

The room was filled with an awkward silence. Ever since his little overreaction earlier there had been an uncomfortable tension between them, which neither of them had an explanation for.

Anna had tried to engage him in some more harmless banter after he had placed their order, but House hadn't responded like usual. He had made a few sexual remarks, but his antics just weren't the same and Anna could tell that his mind was clearly engaged elsewhere.

Although Anna didn't understand his behaviour, she had come to the conclusion that House must just be tired from the long day at the hospital. Long hours of work had never bothered him before as far as she could remember, but then he wasn't as young as he used to be. 10 years were a long time and he had suffered through a lot. Anna couldn't even begin to understand what unbelievable pain he must be in every minute of the day.

Once she had learned about his infarction, she had read every book and article she could get her hands on and by now most certainly had a pretty accurate understanding of his physical condition, but she also knew that you couldn't really comprehend someone's feelings and thoughts if you weren't in their situation and even if you were you still might act differently than the other person. But that was just what distinguished human beings from animals. We don't solely act on our instincts. Everybody is different and therefore deals differently with their hardships.

Anna could tell that the infarction and the break up with Stacey had left a strain on House. His remarks were as sharp, witty and rude as ever, maybe just a little bit more. His mind had always been brilliant and still was. And even his appearance hadn't changed much, besides the cane of course and his stubble, 'which gave him an even manlier look' Anna thought. But there was something in his eyes that wasn't there the last time she had seen him and which she didn't like: A sad, almost haunted look which seemed to come from deep within his soul. 'It's almost like although he is still alive, he doesn't live anymore. Like he his just a shell. He functions and does everything people expect him to do, but there's nothing left inside. No feeling, no joy, no love. It's almost like he's given up already – '

Anna's musings were interrupted by House's stern voice, who finally felt the need to break the uncomfortable silence between them, because somehow he felt responsible for it.

"So, you're back - " he didn't really know what to say, so he left the sentence unfinished.

Anna looked at him. She smiled slightly. A Greg House who was at a loss for words. Well that was definitely something that didn't happen every day. But before she could delve even more in silent ponderings about his odd behaviour, she decided that awkward small talk was better than none at all.

She chose to respond: "That indeed I am"

'She doesn't make this easy' House thought. He decided to just ignore the uncomfortable tension between them and do what Greg House was best at – being a smart ass.

"Why…I mean it's great, really! I am happy that you're here again, but did you just come to visit your favourite host parent and the most brilliant diagnostician in the whole world I might add or does your stay have a higher purpose?"

Anna had to really smile now. "I am here because I really wanted to see you again. It's been such a long time. And speaking of my favourite host parent – I have yet to visit Stacey – " House made a 'mphf'-sound

"- as to the higher purpose of my visit. Well, I am not just here to visit."

Anna paused. This was the hard part. She wasn't really sure how she should tell him. Not that it was a big thing, but she in a way was afraid how he might react.

"Well" House eyed her intensely "What are you here for? You'd better tell me or I might die of suspension. You wouldn't want to be responsible for that. Although, a lot of people may actually thank you for getting rid of the much hated Doctor House. You may get a lot of fruit baskets with little thank-you cards. Not Cameron and Cuddy, though. They just love my hot bod. Can't get enough of me. Once I'm gone they'll probably have you wrestled down in the mud in no time. Shame I won't get to enjoy it anymore - "

"Alright, alright, I tell you" Anna put both hands up signalling him to stop his ranting.

"I know that I obtained my masters degree 2 months ago, right" House nodded.

Although they hadn't seen each other in 10 years they had still kept in touch over time, mainly through e-mails. He knew that after she had gone back to Germany and graduated High School there, she had gone to college, majoring in English and German.

"Well, you know how much I love the States and that I've always wanted to come back" Anna continued. "I also have a love for teaching. I've privately tutored Middle School students for years to earn some money while I was still in college. And strangely enough, I've always enjoyed it. I was lucky, too. All of my students were very well-behaved children. Anyway, now I thought 'why not turn my hobby into a profession'"

House contemplated her of a moment. "You are aware that there's a big difference between having to teach 1 kid and about 30? The one kid's parents are paying you because they believe that the only reason their little nipper brings home Ds and Fs are all the mean children who distract their little sunshine. So when you're teaching a whole class you have to deal not only with the little sweetheart, but also with his 29 devilish classmates. They won't listen to anything you say and will be all over you in no time. 2 years form now you'll have a mental break down and you'll realize that you've wasted the best years of your life without getting anything in return. I'm only saying this, because I care about you and I'll be the one who has to pick up all the pieces in the end. Not that I don't have enough with mine already."

House leaned back with a very satisfied look on his face. He had just made a point and a good one at that. How anybody could only remotely think about working with children was beyond him anyway.

Anna waited a few more seconds before she responded.

" I truly appreciated you deep-rooted concern for my well-being and your faith in my authority" Anna sent him an amused look "And I am indeed aware of all of what you've just pointed out" House's expression became an even smugger one.

"And that's exactly the reason why I won't teach Middle School kids anymore." Anna continued

"About half a year ago I sent applications to different colleges in the States. Most of them on the East coast, because I'd have preferred to be close to New Jersey, because I have some friends here. I also wanted to be close to you and Stacey so we could stay in touch and see each other from time to time. Only if you are interested as well that is"

This time House gave her a warm smile "Of course, I'd love that."

"Anyway, to make a long story short: A few weeks ago Princeton University wrote back and offered me a full-time position as a German teacher in their school for Modern languages. I was thrilled to death, accepted right away, packed 3 suit cases and flew over here! I'll start on Monday"

"Well, that's a surprise! Seems like you'll be sticking around for a while" House said.

He looked pretty satisfied with the news he had just received. Anna had come to stay. That was great. She was the closest thing to a friend he had, besides Wilson of course. Anna was one of the few people who really knew him. Or at least, knew him better than anyone else. Around her, he could let his guard down. He wasn't sure why, but during the year she had spent with Stacey and him he had come to deeply care for her.

Probably because she was around all the time. Living with someone day in and day out was just different than just seeing them at work. You really got to know a person by sharing a daily routine.

When she had gone back to Germany he was actually sad, although he had been far from admitting it. He had gotten used to her during that year. They had shared their lives, their stories of the day and a lot of laughs. The only thing they hadn't shared was the bed. But Stacey had been there for that.

Then she was gone and he felt like a huge part of him was gone with her.

But now she was back. Maybe they could pick up where they had left of all these years ago. He kind of doubted it though. This time would probably be different. She wasn't even living with him anymore, or was she?

"So, where will you be staying? Have you found an apartment, yet?" House asked.

"Ehm, no, actually I haven't….yet. I thought that I start looking for a place once I am here. It's easier this way, because I'd like to take a look at places first. It's difficult to find a decent place over the internet."

Anna hesitated. She had planned to ask him if she could stay with him for a while. At least until she had found an apartment of her own. After all they had been living together for almost a year and it had gone pretty well. But considering the earlier odd behaviour towards her, she wasn't so sure anymore. He had always been somewhat of a loner. Not many friends etc. But when she was living with him and Stacey that hadn't been an issue, because contrary to popular belief and in spite of his antisocial and misanthropic behaviour, Greg House was not impossible to live with.

He liked his solitude and wanted to be left alone from time to time so he could play his piano or ponder over one of his medical mysteries and he despised any kind of household chores whatsoever, but who didn't?

Back then House had just gone to the hospital roof whenever he needed to be alone and think and Stacey and she had taken care of the household. So when he got home he was usually in a decent mood and the apartment was always clean and neat.

Now his place was a mess. The kitchen looked like he hadn't done his dishes in weeks and there were half empty bottles of scotch and medical files and journals strewn all over the living room.

Of course that could be easily taken care of. When she lived here she would start tidying up first thing in the morning, because there was nothing Anna despised more than untidiness.

If he let her stay with him, because so far he hadn't said a word.

Silence had settled over the room once again. Anna figured that it was still her turn to speak. "It may take me a few days to find a suitable place. I could stay in a motel during that time. Maybe you could recommend one? Nothing to expensive, because my first pay check won't – "

"Huh, motel? What are you talking about?" House interrupted her. "Why don't you stay here? Your old bedroom is still here, you know. Needs some cleaning, though"

A small sigh of relief escaped Anna's mouth. "Are you sure, I mean, you have to work a lot and I don't want to bother you – "

"What's wrong with you? I don't have to work any more than I had to 10 years ago. Even less now that I'm a department head. All my underlings are doing the real work actually. I just hand out orders. Besides you'll work as well during the day, if I've been listening correctly. It's not like we haven't done this before. Plus your staying here will have the huge advantage of a clean apartment. Haven't had that in a while. Not since I fired Wilson's cleaning lady" Anna threw him a confused look.

"Long story, I'll explain another time. So, what do you say? Will you stay till you have found a place of your own and take care of an old man's needs and I am not just talking about food, clean clothes and an tidy place. Just consider it your payment for the roof over your head" House wriggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"I think I will. I am willing to do your laundry every now and then and cook dinner whenever I get off before you do. And I will definitely bring order to this immense chaos here, but I am afraid you'll have to take care of _certain_ needs yourself. You have another hand, you know" House smirked.

Anna stifled a yawn "Oh my, I am tired. It's been a really long and exhausting day"

"Ah, now that you've got me were you wanted me you drop the façade. No more flattery and small talk. Now that I've fulfilled all your needs I am dismissed or what?" House said with a faked reproachful tone in his voice.

"You are absolutely right, Greg. I am like an evil man eater. At first I slowly approach my prey and surround it and once I have cornered it I go for the kill. Then I chew it all out and once finished with it, I leave the cadaver lying in the dust and go looking for my next victim"

House looked at Anna and started to laugh. "May be in your dreams little girl. You are way too cute and sweet for that."

He stood up and started to hobble down the hall towards his bedroom, snickering all the way.

Anna felt sad. That was how he had always seen her: A cute, nice, naïve little girl. He didn't see her as a woman. Not once had he looked at her like men looked at women: with a slight, sometimes well-hidden interest or even blatant desire in their eyes, ogling her breasts or checking out her ass. She knew, because many men looked at her in this way. Sometime it flattered Anna, sometimes it just plainly annoyed her.

In a way House was right of course. When she had first arrived in the States all these years ago, Anna knew that she had truly been naïve. She had believed the world was full of princes and fairy tales and that one day a knight in shining armour would come along taking her away on his white steed.

Over the years Anna had met a lot of men, but dated only a hand full of them. Her best friend Clara declared her outright insane. "The guys are all over you like white on rice and you don't even give them a second glance. What in the world is wrong with you? You'll end up an old spinster, all alone with no children or a husband to love." she always complained.

Anna knew what was "wrong" with her. She had very high expectation of men and none of the guys she had met so far had lived up to them. She knew that it wasn't very fair of her towards the men who had shown an earnest interest in her, but she just couldn't help it. No matter how smart or nice they were or how hard they tried, before long Anna started comparing them to another man she knew, and they all paled against Greg House.

She had had a crush on him form the very first moment she saw him at the airport. At first it were his amazingly blue eyes and his casual wardrobe with his worn-out jeans, his nike sneakers and faded band t-shirt that made him look so unbelievable sexy and appealing to her.

After she got to know him better, she was even more intrigued by his sharp mind which was always working in overdrive trying to figure out some problem, medical or otherwise. She loved his passion for music, his witty humour which many considered rude, and his unyielding attitude.

Although she felt that he deeply cared for her, she also knew that he would never reciprocate her feelings. Because of this she made a big and successful effort not to let him, or anybody else, discover her infatuation. She had his friendship and respect, so she thought. That was more than she could have hoped for and more than most people had and so she decided to settle for it, because she really didn't have a choice anyway.

It was not until a few years later that Anna realized her harmless school girl crush on Greg House had a lasting effect. To her House was the embodiment of a man. Although he was far from perfect, he was the guy for her. No other man stood a chance against him. At least until now.

Anna would be damned if she told him, but her love for the States and her desire to see her friends again was only part of the reason why she had come back.

The other, maybe even bigger part was that she had to finally come to terms with her feelings for House, whatever they were.

After countless unsuccessful attempts on dating which had always ended with Anna dumping the guy or not even giving him a chance, because she just couldn't love him like she felt she should, she had come to the conclusion that it at all started with Greg House. He had ruined all men for her. And that was 12 years ago, when she was still a naïve little girl. She had changed since then. He body had changed. She had become a woman. Her views had changed. She knew now that prince charming didn't wait around the next corner and believing that having all the answers and everything figured out was an illusion. The more you knew the more you realized how much you didn't know.

The only thing which hadn't changed were her feelings for Greg, but that was only because they hadn't had a chance to develop, or rather degenerate. She needed conciliate the fantasies of a 17 year old girl with the thoughts and views of the 29 year old matured woman she was today.

Anna finally needed closure, so she could move on, start dating in earnest, find a guy who she could really commit to, maybe even marry and raise a family with.

"Do you mind sleeping on the couch tonight?" House's words startled her. She hadn't heard him re-enter the living room. He was carrying some linen and a blanket.

"It may not be a four-poster bed in the Ritz, but it's not so bad Wilson tells me. He's crashed here a couple of nights after his third wife threw him out. I'd let you sleep in my bed, but my leg has given me more trouble than usual lately and unfortunately a night on the couch elevates the pain rather than decreases it."

"Don't worry Greg. The couch is just fine!" Anna started to make up her bed on the furniture.  
"Tomorrow we'll clean out your old room. It's pretty much just a storage room right now, but I think there's still a bed under all that junk in there". House smiled.

"That's great! But you really don't have to go through a lot of trouble" Anna said.

"No trouble at all. We'll just get Wilson to come and do all the hard work. This might actually be a lot of fun" House grinned wickedly.

Anna finished arranging the bedding on the couch. They stood awkwardly across from each other. House cleared his throat. "Well, it's late and you look really exhausted. I'll let you get some rest now"

"Right" Anna wanted to hug him, but held back. 10 years ago she would have just embraced him without thinking, but something had changed and she wasn't sure anymore if he wanted her to or would even let her.

She went over to one of her suit cases which she hadn't unpacked yet and which were still standing next to the front door where she had dropped them when she had arrived a few hours earlier.

House turned around and limped in the direction of his bedroom. "Night" he said over his shoulder.

House was glad that she hadn't tried to hug him. Given his earlier reaction he wasn't sure how his body would react to another physical contact with her. In the course of the evening had had come close to embarrassing himself more than once. Every time she leaned slightly over the table because they she was telling something animatedly waving about with her hands, the scent of her sweet perfume was filling his nostrils and his cock began to stir in his pants again. Luckily this time he was sitting down, his lap covered form view by the top of the table.

"Night Greg. Sweet dreams" Anna's voice called after him.

"And Greg?"

"Yes?" He turned his head around and looked at her.

"Thank you, for the pizza and for putting up with me and… for everything" Anna smiled slightly.

He gave a court nod "If you want to live here again, you have to stop thanking me for every move you make. You'll be wasting countless hours of my precious time which I could spend scoring hot babes" and with that he was gone shutting his bedroom door behind him with a thud.

When he was alone in his king-sized bed, House's thoughts drifted back to Anna and their evening together. The second part, eating pizza and talking about her plans for the next few months, had been rather enjoyable. Almost like old times.

Anna hadn't seemed mad about his earlier behaviour. She was a very forgiving person anyway, and never bore somebody a grudge very long. 'Sometimes she may be too forgiving for her own good' House thought.

He was just glad that she hadn't noticed his little predicament earlier and wasn't put of by his almost forceful overreaction.

Overreaction. 'That was exactly what it was' he thought. It had nothing to do with Anna as a person. He just hadn't had sex in way too long. The last time he had been intimate with a woman was at least 2 months ago and that was a quick and not very satisfying blowjob from Paula, his favourite hooker.

Contrary to popular believe, which he did nothing to correct, he even encouraged it by his flippant remarks about prostitutes, Greg House did not make a habit of relying on working girls for his carnal pleasures.

He could count the numbers of times he had called an escort service on one of his hands. The first time had been shortly after Stacey had left him, for the second time that is.

He usually just called upon a 'lady of the night' when he was really down, even more than usual, bitterly needed a distraction and just didn't have the nerve of going to some bar, turning on his charm and talking some college girl into bed.

The blowjob a few weeks ago had resulted from a similar situation.

_One of House's patients had died, because they weren't able to diagnose him in time. When he had come home that night he had been utterly miserable. He felt like he had failed yet again. While drowning half a bottle of scotch he contemplated his life, which had been one big flop._

_He had failed absolutely everybody who was important: first his father because he __hadn't chosen a military career and become a high ranking officer like John House had. Secondly his mother because at the age of 48 he was still living alone, had never married and no children and was an unhappy, miserable person. Thirdly Wilson and Cuddy and all his colleagues every time they put their trust and faith in him and he let them down, because he acted like a selfish, egoistical jerk putting his needs and wishes before theirs or the hospitals . And most importantly he had failed Stacey because he couldn't accept his damaged thigh. He blamed her for his limp and couldn't forgive her. _

_He was sorry for making her miserable and driving her away. He was sorry for every __wrong he had ever done, for every disappointment he had caused. But he couldn't change it and if he had to do it all over again, he would probably do it exactly the same, because he just couldn't change his personality no matter how hard he tried. And that was what bothered him the most and for which he hated himself more than anything else. _

_To take his mind off of these self-loathing thoughts he had called Paula. But when she had arrived he hadn't felt any better and __had certainly not been in the mood for the exhausting work sex sometimes was, so he had asked her for a blowjob instead, which had been unsatisfying enough because he had trouble concentrating on the job at hand and had some trouble getting it up. When she was done and gone he was left with the same miserable thoughts as before and an even deeper feeling of loneliness. _

So now he hadn't gotten his rocks of for over 2 months. It was just normal that his body reacted the way it did when confronted with a beautiful, young woman. It was a common physical reaction. He just needed to relieve some tension in the near future and everything would be fine. Nothing to worry about.

'I just need to get laid'. With that thought in mind, House turned around and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

**TBC**

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